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CELEBRATING THE GLORIOUS TWELFTH....WELCOME TO THE ' REAL' FOREST OF BOWLAND

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

Back on the Road.

It was good to be out today having not been so since last Thursday but the day 'fizzled out' after I left Fluke Hall but that becomes apparent later.

At Conder Green the high tide today was unavoidable but the marsh here is as good a place as any in the area for Snipe and today 4 Jack Snipe came off as the incoming tide displaced them. At low tide - if you want to risk breaking your ankle or ending up to your kneecaps in a small hidden channel - its always worth a wander over to flush out the birds, but that's not my favourite pastime and the birds don't like it either. A Greenshank was on the pool as were 10 Little Grebe after about 6 counts, 2 Goldeneye were also noted. With Glasson Dock and Cockersands pretty hopeless until the tide dropped I went off to Fluke Hall stopping en route were a single WhooperSwan was with 17 Mute Swans in a field opposite Sand Villa. A walk from Fluke Hall to Cockers Dyke turned out to be a good idea if only to find two smart adult MediterraneanGulls on Preesall Sands, not the one in the pic above of course which I took some time back and is a good comparison picture......should'nt Black-headed Gulls be called Brown-headed Gulls? The dyke was a little quiet today save 4 LittleEgret, 9 Grey Plover, and circa 125 Lapwing, 53 Shelduck, 15 Redshank, and a single Knot and Pink-footed Goose.

And this is where the day came to an abrupt end in relation to birding because I went to Cockersands with enough time to checkout Abbey Farm to see if the BR was still around, it didn't appear to be though I had to cut the visit short to beat some pretty horrible 'stuff' in the sky and heading towards Cockersands which I regret caught up with me before I reached the shelter of my car and I ended up drenched and boy do I mean drenched, not happy......but eventually got over the unhappiness!

I heard mention on the television the other day of a round Britain coastal path, but it was only a mention I heard so don't know the details but sounds excellent to me. I couldn't help wondering - when I reached the fence which confronts you on the marsh behind Fluke Hall Wood telling us 'NO PUBLIC ACCESS BEYOND THIS POINT' - what will the man who had the rights (didn't he?) to put up the sign have to say when they arrive in time to come armed with the equipment to remove the fence!

Ray here...what a great picture! Good to see you back in action again. Whenever I see these daft signs, I wonder how far the threat extends... beyond this point presumably takes in half of the universe! There's a good story about a man being challenged by a landowner, and he asks him how come he owns this land. "My ancestors fought for this land" was the reply, so our "trespasser" said.. "OK, I'll fight you for it now!!"

Thanks for your input Ray much appreciated and your tale about the 'fight' for the land is excellent however, I'm really surprising myself here in that two people have tried (not intentionally) to fire me up on the land ownership issue and these outrageous signs telling us to 'Keep Off' but sorry not going down that road on Birds2blog.....well not this time anyhow.

I have no wish to fire you up Pete, but as a comment I do wonder what might happen in the particular area you show when a right to roam applies and Uncle Tom Cobley and all use the place as they do now just the other side of the fence.

Phil thanks for comment which is perfectly acceptable and a difficult one to deal with I appreciate, but as an individual I'm not keen on being 'barred' from a place because another individual doesn't realise he's out of the trees now and his knuckles no longer drag along the floor.

I worked on the idea of a North West Coastal Path (Liverpool to Carlisle) several years ago... a long time in the planning, but bear in mind, Blackpool Prom is part of the path and often the 'coastal path' may not be on the coast, but makes use of existing footpaths and public rights of way, not necessarily 'on the coast' per se... Not unlike the Ribble Way, doesn't run along the River Ribble or 'coast line' and has to go through Preston etc...